Sweet Hearts

Hey friends, I know that lately I’ve been focusing on new adventures with Bywater and signing my next novel, Perfect Pairing , but one of the wonderful parts of this transition is being able to keep some of my ties to Bold Strokes Books. As you likely know, I have 8 novels with BSB, but my time at BSB was so much more than “my books.” It’s a place where I learned and grew, and most of all it’s where I made the connections that shaped my experience in the lesbian fiction world.  I made so many friends and gained so many mentors during my time with BSB, so many names that will never appear on the cover of a book, but without them my name would have never appeared on the cover a book either. I know where I came from and who helped me to get where I am, and I’ll never forget it, which is why I am so proud of my last project with BSB.

The Sweet Hearts anthology is a group effort of some of BSB’s finest. Melissa Brayden , Karis Walsh , and I each wrote a novel that fits the theme “sweet hearts.” Each of our contributions is a stand-alone story that follows a minor character from a previous book. My story is titled Getting Serious, and it follows Lisa Knapp and Marty Maine from LoveLife. I had a blast getting to hang out with them (and see Joey and Elaine) again. I’d been thinking about their story for years. I knew where I wanted to take them, and I believed their story was compelling enough to be told, but how? They were too much for a short story, and I didn’t know for sure if it could fill the space of a whole novel. Getting to write their romance in novella form fit them, and me, perfectly.

All three novellas were then put together and edited by Ruth Sternglantz.   I hadn’t worked with Ruth much before this. She had asked me to write the foreword for Lee Lynch’s American Queer anthology, and she’d gone over that with me, but having her edit Getting Serious was fun. I consider Ruth a friend, someone smart and thoughtful and trustworthy. Getting to work with her helped me cross off one of my BSB bucket-list items, and I think you’re going to really like the results.

Now Sweet Hearts is in the hands of the printer. It will be officially on the market in December, but it’s going to make its paperback debut in Provincetown for Women’s Week. I love Ptown, and I love the energy that comes from reading, so anytime I get that chance I’m happy, but this time around it will be extra special for me. I’ll be reading from Getting Seriou s as part of BSB’s Sweet Romance Readings alongside fellow Sweet Hearts author and close friend Melissa Brayden (Along with longtime friends Ali Vali and Nell Stark as well as new authors Holly Stratimore, Jackie D, and Jean Copeland).

I’m happy to have kept these ties to friends and colleagues at BSB. I am proud of the entire Sweet Hearts anthology and my piece in it, and I am really looking forward to celebrating the culmination of this project in Ptown next month.

I hope those of you who are at Women’s Week will come share the moment with me, and I hope those of you who can’t make it to Ptown will still go preorder Sweet Hearts now.